Monday, April 28, 2014

In my Spanish class
sophomore year at Lehi High, I had Senor Ted Taylor. He is a great
teacher! I did very well in the class, and scored 99% on the final exam.
The only thing I missed? I wrote "la camisa es viernes" instead of "la
camisa es verde." The shirt is friday. That day, 4 years ago, I NEVER would have guessed that I would serve a mission, let alone Spanish speaking.

This past week I had the most miraculous experience!
We had exchanges again with the Stafford Hermanas. I know more Spanish
than the Hermana I was with, so I felt as if I wasn't going to have a
safety net in case I got confused. I was really nervous! However, things
went perfectly! It was as if Heavenly Father flipped the switch and I
could speak perfectly! We had three lessons and a dinner and we were
able to accomplish all that we needed to! I understood everything that
was told me and I was able to say everything that I wanted to. I even
helped Absalon and Natalia with a renewal for their apartment contract! I
feel very blessed to be here, to speak Spanish, to be a missionary,
etc. :) My Spanish has improved A LOT from what it was 4 years ago;)

On the exchange, we also got to help Hermana Amanda (member) again with genealogy at the library! The Branch had a temple trip Saturday
night to do baptisms. We were able to prepare about 10 names! There is a
mountain load of temple work to be done in the Branch! Most members are
converts, and have never done their family history before. Many of them
have committed to call back home (Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, etc.)
to get dates and names before their parents die. This is so exciting!

On Monday,
Hermana Agurcia and I borrowed bikes (and helmets) from the Elders.
Hermana Agurcia took some pictures, but forgot her camera cord. I'll
send them next week:) It was her first time on a bike, and she did
great:) Unfortunately, it made my back hurt:( We didn't have time to see
the doctor this morning, but maybe tomorrow.

We had an amazing lesson with Concepcion about the
priesthood! After the lesson, we gave her a picture of the Savior. She
showed it to her 7-year-old son. She asked him if he knew who the man
was in the picture. The son answered, "Yes, He was just barely here with
me." How cool is that?! The Savior has promised us that whenever two or
more people meet in His name, He will be there. Concepcion is praying
about a baptismal date in June!

On Saturday, I was lamenting to Hermana Agurcia about how much food the members give us. Sometimes it makes me sick. I was sick Thursday and Friday! On Sunday,
Hermana Martinez made us some soup. She got a small bowl and put it in
front of me. She said that if I liked it, I could have more. Then she
proceeded to get a huge bowl for Hermana Agurcia! I was very confused.
It tasted great and I finished it, but the small bowl was the perfect
portion for me. When we left the house, I asked Hermana Agurcia if she
had told the member that I don't like eating too much food. She said no.
This is how it happened:

-"Why did she give me less food? Is it because I'm gringa? Or skinny?"

-"She was worried you wouldn't like it. Sometimes it's difficult for Americans to adjust to the food."

-"But she gave me a TON of food last time. Did you say something to her?"

-"Do you have any idea what you just ate?"

-"What?!"

Querida Familia, I ate COW INTESTINE. COW INTESTINE.
Remember the story Grandpa Kelsey used to tell about the gas station
and the 7-up? There was an extra water bottle in the car and I'm pretty
sure I downed it faster than he downed the haunted 7-up. The worst part
is that I LIKED the soup. I thought the floating chunks were carne of
some type. It's called "mondongo" and it's the most famous dish from
Honduras. Yay. I just want to make sure you all know that I ate cow
intestine.

Later that night (which was last night), we stopped
by Absalon and Natalia's home. I told Absalon about the experience and
told him I wanted to eat something sweet. So we had bread and this yummy
caramel syrup stuff! Absalon and Natalia are super prepared for their
baptism! The RS is pitching in for food, decorations, and so much food.
Hermana Agurcia and I are hoping to pick up matching skirts or shirts or
something! We are going to be the witnesses for the marriage:)

We have a new investigator! Her name is Diana and
she is the daughter of the woman for whom we raked leaves for five
hours. (And her younger sister is the one that had the One Direction
birthday party!) They have opposite work schedules, so we are teaching
them separately. Diana is super prepared and started asking questions
about the temple, what she needs to do to enter the temple, how long she
should wait before baptism, etc. AND she gave us a referral! Hopefully
more exciting news will come forth concerning this family... :)

Here are my notes about Diligence! My Christlike
attribute for the month:) Sorry they're coming at you at the end of the
month...I can't believe how fast April was!

"I
have often said one of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work!
If a missionary works, he will get the spirit; if he gets the spirit, he
will teach by the spirit; and if he teaches by the spirit, he will
touch the hearts of the people and he will be happy. There will be no
homesickness, no worrying about families, for all time and talents and
interests are centered on the work of the ministry. Work, work,
work--there is no satisfactory substitute, especially in missionary
work."

- President Benson

I love this quote and I think it applies to all that we do! There is no satisfactory substitute for working hard:)

-Diligence is steady, consistent, earnest, energetic, and persistent.

-It is an expression of our love for God! In return, we find joy and satisfaction.

-Joseph Fielding Smith said: "People die in beds. And so does ambition." One of the secrets of success is to get up early!

-Distractions keeps us from working diligently.

-If we truly are diligent, we don't need supervision.

-Diligence is more than just hard working--it is working effectively!

-Set yearly, monthly, and daily goals! Plan well to achieve goals!

-D&C 58 - be anxiously engaged in a good cause.

-Lift where you stand!

-Grandma Crandall always tells me that I know how to eat an elephant:) and sometimes Dad says that too.

-Why
does the Lord expect me to be diligent? Because He was. He knew what
His purpose was, and He fulfilled it perfectly. Even more than that, He
didn't keep any of the glory--He passed it on to the Father.

-"Let us realize that the PRIVILEGE to work is a gift, that the power to work is a blessing, that the love of work is success." President McKay

One
thing I did this month to help me be more diligent, is that I planned
my person studies at the beginning of the month. I'm in the middle of
both the OT and Jesus the Christ, so I planned which days I would read
which book. I also assigned myself a chapter from PMG each day. I want
to be a PMG Missionary, so I need to study it often! Having planned
studies really helped me to stay focused!:)

I've gotta go, BUT I LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH:) Love, Hermana Crandall

*PS - In case you forgot, I ate cow intestine last night ;)

*PPS - Just a prompting I received to share this: The YW's Theme is very important. When was the last time you recited it? We are daughters of our Heavenly Father... There's someone I'm specifically thinking of who I
hope sees this. I love you and I hope you're doing those things that
will bring you true happiness!:)

Tuesday, April 22, 2014

Last week I forgot to mention the
greatest thing ever! After we raked leaves for 4 hours, my back was in
SO MUCH PAIN. On Monday before emailing, we finally visited the famous
Mormon chiropractor that lives in Fredericksburg! His name is Dr. Brooks
and he is AMAZING! He adjusted my back, did some muscle stimulation,
and realigned my hips. My injury from my fall 5 months ago was worse
than I thought. I had about 3 or 4 vertebrae in my lower back that were
basically stuck together. Standing for too long or any type of exercise
put a lot of pressure on them. My hips were also misaligned by about 2
or 3 inches. As soon as he said that, I knew he was right! I've been
hula dancing in the mornings as exercise, and I could tell that my hips
weren't near as flexible as they were in high school. It's not that I'm
getting old, it's just that they weren't aligned correctly! Yay! I was
in a lot of pain this past week because it was my first ever adjustment,
but we went back today and I feel better now.

A lot of things happened this past week and it all happened super fast!

Tuesday/Wednesday
we had exchanges. I stayed in Fred with Hermana Penaloza. We were able
to do some service for Hermana Warren, a member. She is gringa but her
husband was from Honduras. (He passed away a few months ago.) She just
moved into a smaller house so we did some cleaning and organizing. I
really do love this Hermana!:) She chooses to attend the Spanish Branch,
even though she can't speak Spanish fluently, because she knows she is
needed in the Primary.

On Wednesday,
we painted faces at an easter egg hunt in Wellington Woods! The
majority of our investigators and potentials live in this apartment
complex. When we heard they were having a party, we asked the office if
we could help! Hermana Agurcia and I painted faces while the Elders
(Ormond and Steiner) passed out fliers for our free English classes. It
was only 50 degrees out, so it wasn't as successful as we had hoped, but
we had a lot of fun and all of the kids love us now! The office loves
us too, and they want missionaries to come help with a party they're
having for the 4th of July! I attached a picture of us missionaries with our poster. The Elders were being kind of weird;) haha.

Thursday,
we helped Diana again (we raked leaves for her last week) with the
birthday party of her daughter! (PS the daughter is now 8!) We cooked
lots of good Peruvian food and helped decorate and set up. Then she sent
us to the Latin Market to buy Inca Kola which is the greatest soda
known to mankind. (Yes, I even like it more than Baja Blast!) The
birthday party was "One Direction" themed so we heard plenty of them,
Taylor Swift, and some Disney artists. By the end of it all, Hermana
Agurcia and I were feeling pretty worldly...

Friday
night we had a charla fogonera (fireside) in Stafford for the youth.
Dora's teenage daughter attended, so we were able to go! Remember the
Launching Leaders fireside I attended in January? We had a mini
Launching Leaders fireside directed at the youth. It was taught by
Brother Christiansen, who is from Accokeek! He was super happy to see
me:) I love that family. Also, I don't think I mentioned this, but three
weeks ago we had a youth fireside with Sister Carver, the wife of the
Accokeek Ward's Bishop. Did you know I'm attending the same chapel on
Sundays? I see all of my Accokeek peeps (including the Fisher family!)
every Sunday at church;)

Stafford Branch RS & YW

On Saturday
we had the inaugural English class! Four people attended, including
Absalon and Natalia:) The Elders taught this week, and we'll be teaching
next week. It was SUPER funny to hear them trying to talk in English. I
imagine that's how they feel when they hear me speak in Spanish;) I'm
really excited to start teaching. It's a blessing that I took 2 years of
Spanish in high school and 3 semesters of Spanish at BYU, because now I
know what makes a good language teacher. I am truly grateful for Senora
Ericksen, Mr. Taylor, Brother Lopez, Martha, and Senora Robinson:) I
would love to earn my teaching license so I could teach Spanish part
time in the future.

Mom is going to die when she reads this. Guess which
bug has been nibbling on me? The Genealogy Bug! Seriously I wish you
could understand how funny this experience was. Last Sunday, Hermana
Torrico came to me after Sacrament Meeting and said she really needed my
help. Hermana Agurcia was with Natalia, so I told her we'd meet up
later in RS. Hermana Torrico took me to a small class room with another
Hermana and started setting up her computer. She then invited me to say a
prayer. I had no idea what was going on, so I just prayed that we'd
have the Spirit. Then she logged in to familysearch.org
and told me to make an account for the other sister. It was SO FUNNY.
Hispanics are not very good with computers. They were very confused
about usernames, passwords, display names, etc. And then I was very
confused about the Spanish, because we were using the site in Spanish
and they were talking to me in Spanish. To make it even better, Hermana
Torrico forgot the cord and the battery only had a few minutes left. We
made the account in time and Hermana Torrico walked me to the Gospel
Principles class! (I'm not allowed to be alone.)

Yesterday, it all happened again. Except this time,
there were three other people in the room that needed accounts. I made
accounts for two of them, only to find out they already had accounts!
Haha:) One Hermana couldn't remember the password to her email so we
couldn't activate her account after we made it. I helped one Hermano
update his father in his family tree. (Interestingly enough, his father
was born on May 19, 1961! But he passed away 12 years ago.) At the end, I
went with Hermana Torrico to the ward clerk's room to print some stuff.
She remembered that she needed to get the password to access the
computer from someone, so she ran out of the room. I looked around a
bit, realizing that I was alone, and then stood up to chase after her.
It was super funny! I really love Hermana Torrico:) I'm so grateful that
I'm able to help these people find their families:) And now I have a
stronger desire to do more family history work when I go home!

For Easter, a recent convert named Hermana Santiago
had a HUGE party after church! Absalon and Natalia attended. The food
was super good and us missionaries did a little program based on the
"Because of Him" promotion by the church.

Afterwards, another family had invited us to their
home for dinner. Hermano Messinger served his mission in Guatemala and
also served in the military stationed all over Central and South
America. Hermana Messinger has learned Spanish to support her husband
and now they both serve in the ward!:) I wish I could describe how great
they are! They live on my dream property! 5+ acres, country styled
home, big kitchen, dogs, a horse, fruit trees, garden, huge trees, etc.
The food was really yummy and I felt so comfortable being in their home!
Hermana Messinger gave us lots of advice about choosing a spouse and
raising a family in the Gospel and what not.

I'm running out of time again, but I'll just tell
you the greatest thing in the whole entire world. Absalon and Natalia
have decided to be MARRIED and BAPTIZED! On the same day! I'm so
excited:) Absalon just LOVED church yesterday. He told us that everyone
looked really familiar, as if he'd met them before. Natalia said she
can't deny that the Book of Mormon comes from God. Absalon is just
itching to go to the temple:) He likes his coffee, but gave it up cold
turkey. I am so happy because I know that they are going to be so
happy!:)

Monday, April 14, 2014

Have you seen it yet??? The Church
has produced a special video just for Easter! The Missionary Department
has asked us to promote it. The goal is for over 100 million people to
view the video before Easter Sunday. Please share it on facebook, through email, etc! Please use the hashtag #BecauseofHim to promote it. The website is: easter.mormon.org

Yesterday, we had a new investigator (Carlos) attend
church. He was a referral from a member family. After the services, we
met at the members' home and had a meal (Peruvian....soooo rico). We
watched the video with Carlos and he felt the Spirit so strongly! He
said he's been searching for the true church, and this is the only
church he feels comfortable in! He has a daughter that he wants to get
involved too. This movie was truly inspired:) I encourage you to share
share share it!

Last week, I mentioned that an Apostle was going to
be visiting my mission. I'm super excited to announce that ELDER DAVID
A. BEDNAR will be visiting us early next month! I'm really happy because
his talk was my favorite in the most recent conference! Along with him
will be Elder Lynn G. Robbins (Presidency of the Seventy), Bishop Dean
M. Davies (2nd Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric), Elder Jorg
Klebingat (Seventy), Elder Christ Lansing (Area Seventy), and President
Alan Baker (Virginia Chesapeake Mission). All of the missionaries from
the Chesapeake Mission will also be in attendance. This is going to be
HUGE. I'm so excited:)

*This past week, a lot of things out-of-the-ordinary happened...

On Wednesday
night, our car was towed. We always park in the same place in this
apartment complex, and this time we got towed:( We walked out of the
lesson, and our car was just gone. Hermana Agurcia thought it had been
stolen, haha. Fortunately, we had a member with us--Hermano Dimas who I
LOVE. He drove us to the gas station (ATM) so I could take out a whole
lot of cash. Then we went to the towing place and waited for thirty
minutes for someone to show up. (This was also at 9:30 pm.) Dimas
let us chill in his car and we watched some old church movie called
"Pioneers in Petticoats," or something like that. So Mom, if you're
watching my account, and you see that some money is missing.....this is
why. It wasn't a big deal and everything worked out okay:) I'm so
grateful that we had Dimas with us!

The lesson we had just completed was with Absalon
and Natalia! They're not ready for baptism yet, because they need to
attend church at least three times. If Absalon can't find enough work
during the week, then he has to work on Sundays. BUT, they've decided to
be married!!!!:):):) We extended the invitation for them to be married
and Absalon basically proposed right in front of us:) I'm so happy!
Natalia attended church yesterday and she LOVED it! She said that she
wants to be baptized now!! (This is after many weeks of her reminding us
that she was already baptized Catholic as a bebita.)

Thursday,
we had a lesson with David. He's very pentecostal, and pretty
difficult. He wants to learn, but doesn't want to change. He asks us
random questions like how much we pray and fast. And whether or not we
speak in tongues. Anyway, at the end of the lesson, we asked if there
was any service we could do for him. He jokingly said that we could come
back and rake his leaves. When we got in the car, Hermana Agurcia said
that we should actually do it. I was very confused, because the word for
leaves is "hojas" which also means sheets. I thought he wanted us to
wash his sheets;)

Anyway, we got in touch with the Spanish Elders and
the Fredericksburg Elders (they live together) and invited them to come
with us. We showed up at David's house and began raking leaves. About
one hour into it, he stepped outside. (We didn't know he was home
because he normally works during the day.) He helped a bit, but mostly
just chatted with the Elders while they worked. Diana (mom) came home
from work and started crying when she saw all six of us missionaries in
the yard:) She went to the store and bought a lot of food. She came back
and commanded us "COMAN" so we took a little descansa and ate:) Then we
went back out to finish the job. Unfortunately, we ran out of bags
before we ran out of leaves. We filled 60 bags! We were there for about 4
hours. We probably needed only 5 more. David loved the Elders, and so
we've decided to pass him over to them. We're going to continue teaching
the mom, especially since she wants us to help out with her daughter's
8th birthday party this week. Here's the best part: Hermana Agurcia and I
forgot to pack pants...so we did all of this in skirts;) wooo!

We spend a lot of time in the same two apartment
complexes: Wellington Woods and Crestview. Most of our investigators
live in one or the other. Because we're there so often, we contact our
progressing investigators near daily! We also know a lot of the
Americans, and we pass them on as referrals. There's this one girl named
Amanda, and we always say hi to her. Yesterday, she approached us and
said she needed help with something. Her car had run out of gas because
both the gas and mileage gauges are broken. She had a two gallon gas can
and $5. Even though it was Sunday,
we felt it was appropriate to help her;) We drove to the nearest gas
station and filled it up! We've passed on her name to the Fred Elders,
so hopefully something will come of it:) At least she knows that Mormons
are willing to serve!

Remember Dora? She is golden!:) She called us Wednesday
morning because she needed help with another doctors appointment. This
time, it was at Mary Washington Hospital. We live on the same block, so
we were able to walk there. It was so nice! Normally as a Spanish
Speaking missionary, we don't get to go on very many walks because we
spend most of our time in apartment complexes. Later in the day, we met
up with her family and we talked about the Book of Mormon. Dora loves us
and loves the Gospel! We just need to get her to church now! They've
begun praying as a family every night and I just love how happy Dora is
about all of this! She can really feel how the Gospel will bless her
family.

While in the same apartment complex, we did a pretty
interesting street contact. The ice cream man was driving by, and I
guessed that he was probably Hispanic. We went and bought popsicles and
also got his name and number and address:) Yay!

The last out-of-the-ordinary story is that Hermana Agurcia loves to do hair! Every Friday
we have dinner with Hermana Benavides in Stafford. She always wants Hna
Agurcia to do her hair. Her daughter, Kathy, asked Hermana Agurcia to
do her hair for prom! We met her at the church Saturday morning to do her hair and it turned out really cute!:) I wish I had pictures!

Speaking of pictures...I've attached a picture of me at the Spotsylvania County Visitors' Center. Virginia is for Lovers!:)

Monday, April 7, 2014

Since you are the only two
family members to email me this week, I decided to address my email to
you:) I really do love all of you, and I understand that I've been away
for so long, but I'm still here and I'm still eager to hear about all of
the awesome things that are happening in your life!

Anyway, I would like to start off with the most
exciting announcement of all time! An Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ
will be visiting my mission next month! AHHHHHHH I almost broke down
crying when the Zone Leaders announced it at Zone Meeting last week! We
don't know who it is yet, but he will come with two other General
Authorities. We'll have a whole mission conference and some missionaries
from the Chesapeake Mission will also be in attendance. More details
are forthcoming:)

Speaking of General Authorities.......who LOVED General Conference? Here are some of my thoughts:

At
the very beginning, President Monson did something that I thought was a
little unusual. Normally he'll announce new temples, or he won't. This
time, he announced that he wasn't going to announce temples. Did anyone
else think that was strange? He said that over the past six months, the
church has grown without hindrance. Does that imply that there will be
hindrance in the future? He said that they will continue to consider
where they want to build temples in the future. Are they surveying land
in Jerusalem or Missouri?;) Just some thoughts.

The theme of this conference was very different from
the last. In October, there was a huge emphasis on missionary work. I
felt like this one focused more on personal preparation for the last
days. The adversary's influence in the world will grow at the same rate
that the restored Church of Jesus Christ spreads across the earth.

The choir number "Let us all press on" really hit
me--Saints are going to experience more persecution in the last days,
but we know who will ultimately win.

My
favorite talk was Elder Bednar's about how a load is necessary for
traction. There are some loads we don't need to be carrying around with
us, but it's important that we do carry some burdens. We might not see
all of the reasons why, which is why we have a loving Heavenly Father
who sees the end from the beginning.

I also enjoyed President Packer's testimony. It was
very powerful when he testified that he has the same knowledge that
Joseph Smith and Sidney Rigdon did--that Jesus Christ lives! He lived a
perfect life, he gave his own life, and now he lives. When President
Packer spoke, I felt as if I was in a room alone with him, and he was
sharing his witness with just me.

Elder Holland's talk made me reflect on some of the
difficult experiences I've had on my mission. I feel honored to be
persecuted for the Gospel's sake! We had one mild experience this past
week...

We tracted into a woman named Dora. She's separated
and has three kids. She is SO prepared! We taught her the first lesson.
Lots of Hispanics live with other people because they can't afford to
live on their own. During the end of the lesson, as we were talking
about the Book of Mormon, one of her roommates came into the kitchen to
cook. I could tell he was listening in. Out of no where, he interrupted
and started asking lots of questions and telling us why the Book of
Mormon couldn't be real. We explained that the Book of Mormon takes
place in the Americas, and that he is a descendant of the House of
Israel. He started laughing at us. I felt the Spirit leave--as a
missionary, this is the worst thing ever! Dora was quiet, but she looked
upset that he was ruining our spiritual moment. I prayed so hard to
know what to do! I remembered what it says in Preach My Gospel--all
concerns are answered in the Book of Mormon and my testimony is my
greatest tool. I realized that he didn't want to hear what he had to
say, because he kept cutting us off. Instead I just bore my testimony to
Dora. The man shut up immediately. He watched for a while, and then
left the room. I could tell that he felt really guilt for what he had
done. Dora seemed pleased, and even cried as she said the closing
prayer.

We've since seen Dora twice more. We met her at her
doctor's office to help translate her appointment and we stopped by last
night to watch "Como Hallar Fe en Cristo," or "Finding Faith in
Christ." She said that she's grateful we found her because she knows
that the Gospel is going to bless her children.

Other little tidbit: translating is a great
challenge! Last week I sent a picture of the Moreno family. Hermana
Moreno had a parent teacher conference for Pablo, and she asked us to go
with her to translate. I did the majority of it and it was a lot of
fun! I love this language and I feel blessed to be able to preach the
Gospel in it!

Okay I'm out of time. I love you all so much:) Don't
forget to send me your favorite conference addresses if you haven't
already!

I'm a Mormon!

2 Nephi 31:20

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life.